Theory of transient creep in the L12 intermetallic compounds displaying the yield strength anomaly

A theory of transient creep in the L12 intermetallic alloys displaying the yield strength anomaly is presented. The theory is based on the hypothesis that the mobile a〈101〉 superdislocations undergo a pinning-depinning transition, displaying critical behavior at a critical stress. The areal-velocity scaling function, which describes the average, time-dependent velocity profile of a dislocation as it propagates through the crystal, is introduced. The theory is compared with preliminary experiments. It is argued that the measurement of transient creep allows one to determine information concerning the deformation history of the sample.